Latin America: Reduced S&T Investment Puts Sustainable Development at Risk

Latin America is home to more than 600 million people and has considerable natural and human resources. However, investment in science and technology (S&T) lags far behind that in developed countries. This gap represents a barrier to the development of economies based on knowledge and hampers the region's ability to tackle environmental and social problems. This lack of investment is evident in the extreme case of Venezuela, where much of the science workforce has fled economic chaos, but also in every Latin American country, including science powers such as Brazil and Argentina, where federal budgets in science, technology and education have been drastically reduced in recent years. Investments in S&T foster cooperation, commerce and good will and enhance resilience in the face of environmental and social turmoil. Therefore, scientists must start to actively engage governments and encourage long-term spending in S&T to support the development of Latin American societies.

Content

Author and article information

Journal

Title: ScienceOpen Preprints

Publisher: ScienceOpen

Publication date (Electronic preprint): 26 January 2020

Affiliations

[1 ] Fabio Baudrit Agricultural Research Station, University of Costa Rica, La Garita de Alajuela, Alajuela 20102, Costa Rica and Jardín Botánico Lankester, Universidad de Costa Rica, P.O. Box 302-7050, Cartago, Costa Rica.

[2 ] Chascomús Institute of Technology (INTECH, CONICET, UNSAM). Av. Intendente Marino Km 8.2, CC 164, C.P. 7130, Chascomús, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

[3 ] Department of Zoology, Institute of Biosciences, University of Sao Paulo, Rua do Matão, Travessa 14, n.101, Cidade Universitaria, Sao Paulo SP. CEP 05508-900, Brazil

[4 ] Laboratory of Molecular Oncology, Department of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, UFRJ, Av. Carlos Chagas Filho 373, CCS, Bloco B Subsolo Sala 19, Ilha do Fundacao, Rio de Janeiro, RJ 21941-902, Brazil

[5 ] Optics and Photonics Group, Institute of Physics, Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences, University of Antioquia UdeA, Calle 70 No. 52-21, Medellín, Colombia

[6 ] Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, Av. Portugal 49, Edificio 210, piso 6, Santiago 8330025A, Chile

[7 ] Laboratory of Quantic Electronics, Faculty of Natural and Exact Sciences, University of Buenos Aires, Pabellón I, Ciudad Universitaria, 1428 Buenos Aires, Argentina

[8 ] Millenium Institute on Immunology and Immunotherapy, Departamento de Genética Molecular y Microbiología, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas. Departamento de Endocrinología, Facultad de Medicina. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

[9 ] Faculty of Dentistry, University of Chile, Calle Sergio Livingstone Pohlhammer 943, Independencia Santiago, Santiago 8380-492, Chile.

[10 ] Electrochemistry Laboratory, Chemistry Department, Universidad Simón Bolívar, Caracas, Venezuela

[11 ] Instituto de Investigaciones Científicas y Servicios de Alta Tecnología (INDICASAT-AIP), Panama City, Panama.

[12 ] Department of Research in Virology and Biotechnology, Gorgas Memorial Institute of Health Studies, Panama City, Panama.

[13 ] Laboratory of Biochemistry, Faculty of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Chile, Santos Dumont 964, Independencia, Santiago 8380494, Chile.

Author information

Pablo Bolaños-Villegas https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1729-0561

Rolando Gittens https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0286-3956

Sandra López Vergès https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1106-8479

Article

DOI: 10.14293/S2199-1006.1.SOR-.PPBPKUJ.v3

SO-VID: 6940e362-a914-4319-b1fe-808afd524561

License:

This work has been published open access under Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY 4.0 , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Conditions, terms of use and publishing policy can be found at www.scienceopen.com .

History

Funding

Vicerrectoria de Investigación/Universidad de Costa Rica, Sistema Nacional de Investigación (SNI/SENACYT) of Panama. VIB8069, VIB6602, VIB5A52 and VIB5A49

ScienceOpen disciplines: Social & Behavioral Sciences,Economics

Keywords: Latin America,Science,Sustainable Development,Fiscal Austerity,Environmental Degradation,Social Turmoil

Comments

Pablo Bolaños-Villegas wrote:

Policy-makers, educators, business leaders and others should embrace S&T investment as a centrally important policy for sustainable development in Latin America and the Caribbean.

2020-03-10 18:34 UTC